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I think if you did the G5 national championship thing....and the players only got the schollie and a stipend.......I think it would draw fans like crazy. I think there are loads of folks who want amateur athletics to stay amateur. With what we draw and get in donations.....there is no way we should be paying a football coach over $1m. No way. So yeah amateur athletics, tighten the budget. These coaching staffs are huge now. Do folks not know that we now have a bigger recruiting staff.....than Hayden Fry had for an entire staff. He had six assistants. And it was better, more imaginative football. But this will likely never happen. As all these schools think they're just a break away from the "big time."

This. Unless/until the BOR and Administration decide to "...make winning at revenue sports a priority", we will only have the occasional good season more or less by accident.

We all know you hate baseball. If you make a dollar selling a ticket, it's revenue, and a revenue sport. Profit is different. Few college sports make a profit for an Athletic Department at the G5 level. Baseball (as opposed to golf, swimming, track, etc) would lure fans to campus in the spring, spur donations, as well as tickets and merchandise. It's not always about making money (profit)...it's keeping relationships with fans and alums year-round. Non-revenue sports aren't doing it.

Agree, I would like to see some of these guys get some meaningful minutes just to see what they have. It's hard since we don't see them in practice every day like Hodge does.

THIS!! The portal is the killer. If we only had to compete against other schools having bigger NIL, we'd still be ok because our players would have to honor their commitment here or lose a year when they would transfer away. Instead, the portal allows those NIL deals at P$s to buy off anyone looking for a payday and to play at their dream school. When we see our teams almost turn over by 75% or more, the few fans that do care look at their donations and think that they can be able to use their few thousand dollars they donate in better fashion. For me, I stopped going to games back after 2022. It just became very clear that this sport is one that I cannot support with my butt in a seat anymore. Its intrinsically unfair and completely tilted to hurt places like ours, which was already at a GIGANTIC disadvantage because of our self-inflicted stupidity of the past. Going down to FCS in 1983 and staying there for 12 freaking years while the SWC and Big 8 were at their heights was about as dumb a decision as a school could've made in this region. We nuked the program's fans and alumni support from decades before and decades ahead. But today, with the portal and NIL being what they are, the strong majority of G5 schools shouldn't be in FBS and acting like they're equals to anyone in a Power conference. Yes, you can name a few exceptions, from performance, to tradition, to budget...but this is where we need a level of play that is more like traditional college amateur football. Don't go down to FCS and lose a ton of scholarships, rather create a level of play that allows for you to have 85 or more scholarships, but they aren't playing for anything more than their scholarship and a stipend. Make college coaching staffs have a salary cap. Hell, play your games in the spring semester--do something to get coverage for the sport that America loves more than anything else. Play 10 games in a regional conference setup, then play an 8-team playoff. I would be a season ticket holder again in a heartbeat with a setup like this. Otherwise, Ill watch from afar, like I've done for two years now and haven't regretted one time.